Devi

Continuing on with women-centric posts, here's Devi, a virtual child superhero goddess born out of the partnership between Shekhar Kapur and Deepak Chopra and Virgin Comics (and therefore by default - Richard Branson - since he's owns Virgin).

"She's Devi. A fierce feminine warrior, stronger than the Gods themselves, she is reincarnated into the body of a human woman each time a great threat faces the Pantheon. She is the champion of the heavens and the protector of man."

Now that's impressive introduction. The artwork's very impressive too, at least that's my impression from the sample pages provided. It's about time we had some good Manga with India-centric themes!

Another interesting title in the works by Virgin Comics is Ramayan Reborn. The art work is once again interesting - in a very, very good way. I'll be looking out for copies at local bookstores soon.

However, my only grudge is the language used in the comics. At least within the sample pages, the dialogues somehow seemed a trifle out-of-sync with the artwork. Even the snippet from Devi's introduction that I reproduced here uses terminology of the like "human woman". Hmmm. And here I thought all women were human!

Seriously though, there might be other explanations for gaffes like that. Perhaps, the text on the web-site was hurriedly written by overworked and underpaid writers. Or it could mean the mythologies behind the characters themselves permit the differentiation between a human woman and, for instance, a devil woman or Asura woman, or ... well... we'll have to wait and see. That minor niggle aside, I sense good things for this comic. Even if the language seems stunted somehow, hey, atleast we'll have cool wallpapers of Indian superheroes and such.

Now if only I can get my hands on a copy of one of those comic books, I could sit and read by my window, sipping my hot coffee in my cool NCState mug, watching the snow fall as nuclear winter descends.


(pics courtesy Virgin Comics.)